Prik Gaeng Ped - Thai Red Curry Paste

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Prik Gaeng Ped aka Thai Red Curry paste is a great condiment to have at home to make yummy Thai curries. A word of caution - once you have tasted home made curry paste you may not quite like the curry from your favourite Thai restaurant. There's not many ingredients involved but you will need to have a bit of patience if you want to do it the right way. But hey if you are after tasty food...who's looking at the clock. :)

Ingredients

1. Red Chillies (Dried or Birds eye) - about 20 chillies 
2. Lemon Grass - just the bottom white section finely chopped - 4-5 stalks
3. Coriander stems - 15-20 stems finely diced
4. Kaffir Lime leaves - 1/2 cup - ensure the middle stalk is removed
5. Galanga - 200 gms - remove the skin and dice it up
6. Garlic - 1 bulb
7. Coriander seeds - 1 table spoon
8. Cumin seeds - 1 table spoon
9. Black Pepper seeds - 1 table spoon

The Method

1. Soak the dry red chillies in hot water for about 30 minutes. Once soaked  remove the seeds and stalks from the chillies. Make sure you wear gloves for this step.
2. Now comes the best part - just pound all of the ingredients in a mortar. This might take a good 30-40 minutes. You absolutely need this since the galanga and kaffir leaves need a good pounding before it gets to the next step.
3. Once you have made a coarse paste blend it to a smooth paste in a blender with water used sparingly. 
4. Once blended heat a wide sauce pan and pour about 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and sautee the blended paste for about 20-30 minutes with a teaspoon of salt until the paste is cooked and oil separates.
5. You can refrigerate / freeze this paste once it has cooled down to room temperature. The last time I made it this lasted for a few months.

Enjoy!!

C